BETHLEHEM Pleasant Valley's Seth Slavin, last year's cross country league champion in the final season of the Mountain Valley Conference (MVC), sought another successful outing in the newly-formed Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC).

Despite the competition across the board increasing with the MVC and LVC merger, Slavin had his eyes set on a top-two finish. And while he came up just short on that mark, Slavin put together a solid showing, finishing fourth at Tuesday's EPC Cross Country Meet at Bethlehem Municipal Park."My goal was to finish in second place, and with three-quarters of a mile left, Kevin Lapsansky of Easton passed me," Slavin said. "I just started falling back. I went out too fast."As a team, the Pleasant Valley boys finished fifth out of 18 participating teams. Khai Samules' 24th-place finish helped the Bears reach that mark, while Easton's duo of Colin Abert and Lapsansky finished first and second to lead the Red Rovers to a first-place finish.Joe Phillips (34), Thomas Ciaccio (38) and Gabe Sullivan placed in the top 40 finishers for Pleasant Valley as well."I'm pretty happy because this is pretty much equivalent to a district meet," Slavin said. "Last year I was 20th at districts, and now I'm at fourth [in leagues]."Throughout the regular season, Slavin's approach to begin races has been to start off easy with the rest of the pack. On Tuesday, he switched his mindset a bit and burst to the front of the line from the horn.And while that quick start got Slavin off to a quick start, it may have hindered his stamina as the race winded down."I decided to try to go out with the pack today, and I stayed with them," Slavin said. "I started trying to make some moves and hold on for as long as I could. I didn't have enough left, and they beat me at the end."I did something that I'm not used to doing. When a runner does that it never works out well. I wasn't thinking as much about it; I was just racing."Lizz Eberhardt led the Lady Bears by finishing in 10th place in the girls' race with a time of 19:57.6. She was one of two girls in the top 50, including Jen Mickens at 41st, to place Pleasant Valley 10th as a team.Eberhardt was shooting for a top-10 finish herself, one that would award her a medal as one of the top 12 finishers. She accomplished her goal, and was just 6.6 seconds behind Stroudsburg's Michelle Joyce for seventh place."I'm happy with the way I ran," Eberhardt said. "I died a bit at the end, but that's okay because I ran a pretty good race. This is one of the tougher courses, so I'm glad that I did really well."On a course with a number of hilly portions, something Eberhardt thrives at, the sophomore was able to take advantage in those areas."I don't like flats, so running up a hill and then going flat, I don't like dealing with it," Eberhardt said. "I'm good with going up hills because I push myself up hill to beat other people…I have long legs so I can fly down hills."Eberhardt was able to get off to a fast start, but it was her persistent race that kept her amongst the league leaders all afternoon."I try to run consistently throughout the entire race," Eberhardt said. "Throughout the race, I tried to catch up to the girls who were in front of me. By the hills was when I really started to progress and catch up to more girls."Liberty's Raisa Kochmaruk finished first with a time of 19:26.4, followed by Central Catholic's Colleen Daday and Pocono Mountain East's Rachel Davalos. Parkland won their fourth consecutive league championship, this one to open the EPC.BOYSTeam and Legend1. Easton (Ea) 47, 2. Parkland (P) 54, 3. Liberty (L) 98, 4. Freedom (F) 111, 5. Pleasant Valley (PV) 130, 6. Central Catholic (CC) 159, 7. Stroudsburg (S) 182, 8. Emmaus (Em) 223, 9. Whitehall (W) 295, 10. Northampton (No) 304, 11. Bethlehem Catholic (BC) 321, 12. East Stroudsburg South (ESS) 336, 13. Nazareth (N) 362, 14. Dieruff (D) 369, 15. Pocono Mountain East (PME) 409, 16. Allen (A) 484, 17. Pocono Mountain West (PMW) 495, 18. East Stroudsburg North (ESN) 600.Individual Top 101. Colin Abert (Ea), 16:01.8; 2. Kevin Lapsansky (Ea), 16:25.8; 3. Alex Fitch (L), 16:36.3; 4. Seth Slavin (PV), 16:50.9; 5. Gabe Lamm (W), 16:52.1; 6. Hailemichael Geiger (P), 16:53.1; 7. William Alpaugh (F), 17:00.5; 8. Daniel Quigley (F), 17:13.4; 9. Grant Newman (P), 17:15.8; 10. Daniel Kyvelos (P), 17:20.5.Other Locals24. Khai Samuels (PV), 18:10.5; 34. Joe Phillips (PV), 18:30.1; 38. Thomas Ciaccio (PV), 18:38.9; 40. Gabe Sullivan (PV), 18:40; 41. Billy Milburn (PV), 18:40.3; 80. Bryan Iadisernia (PV), 19:37.2; 92. Keith Staats (PV), 19:54; 112. Seth Todora (PV), 20:35.9; 113. Isaac Quintero (PV), 20:37.8.GIRLSTeam and Legend1. Parkland (P) 80, 2. Easton (Ea) 86, 3. Emmaus (Em) 118, 4. Stroudsburg (S) 141, 5. Central Catholic (CC) 142, 6. Northampton (No) 170, 7. Bethlehem Catholic (BC) 180, 8. Liberty (L) 229, 9. Freedom (F) 234, 10. Pleasant Valley (PV) 236, 11. Nazareth (N) 247, 12. Whitehall (W) 262, 13. Pocono Mountain East (PME) 351, 14. East Stroudsburg South (ESS) 419.Individual Top 101. Raisa Kochmaruk (L), 19:26.4; 2. Colleen Daday (CC), 19:29; 3. Rachel Davalos (PME), 19:34; 4. Diana Hammerstone (Ea), 19:36.9; 5. Abigail Dalton (Em), 19:46.8; 6. Claudia Sacks (CC), 19:49.4; 7. Michelle Joyce (S), 19:51; 8. Cara Moyer (P),

19.54.4; 9. Joelle Perelli (N), 19:55.4; 10. Lizz Eberhardt (PV), 19:57.6.Other Locals41. Jen Mickens (PV), 22:00; 63. Brittany Bonser (PV), 23:23.5; 70. Savannah Bauman (PV), 23:48.7; 84. Ekaterina Slozina (PV), 24:37.3; 102. Sarah Larkin (PV), 26:25.3; 112. Shelbi Jones (PV), 29:51.8.